Synopsis The positive aspects of social change in India, have generated a substantial number of contradictions in the social system. The rise of the middle class in villages and cities has led to hostile attitudes towards the weaker sections and the poor. In villages, the tensions between the Harijans and the Hindu upper castes have increased and necessitated the passage of the civil rights and disabilities act. The exploitation of the labourers by rich peasants held under bondage through the extension of loans has been held legally void, but there is evidence of its perpetuation. A social problem may be defined as a "deviation from the social ideal remediable by group effort". Two elements are important in this definition: a situation which is less than ideal, that is which is undesirable or abnormal, and second one which is remediable collective effort. Though it is not easy to determine which situation is ideal and which is not, and there is no define standard which could be used to judge it, yet it is clear that a social ideal is not something arbitrary and the term social problem is applied only to that issue which social ethics consider as unfavourable. This work in three volumes presents authoritative information on all vital issues concerned with the topics.